All patents, patent applications, and publications cited within this application are incorporated herein by reference to the same extent as if each individual patent, patent application or publication was specifically and individually incorporated by reference.
Electro-optic polymer modulators have been researched for use in RF photonics and telecommunication. Such polymer modulators may be fabricated by wet etching a trench into a single polymer layer and back filling the trench with an electro-optic polymer. However, the final devices suffer because the etch solution or gas etchant leave the bottom of the trench rough, which results in increased optical loss. Additionally, the depth of the trench is often difficult to control and reproduce because the etching rate depends strongly on both precise etchant composition and etch times.